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You use this to help keep positive pressure in your inert atmosphere system. You need to fill it with mineral oil or mercury and you can vent your sealed system though this. This allows you to keep piping in say nitrogen or argon and keep positive pressure without blowing anything up.

The side arm allows you to equilize the pressure between the two sides (otherwise the liquid may not flow from top to bottom). There are ground glass joints on both ends so that you can create a sealed system free from water or oxygen.

$\begingroup$As of 5 years ago, yes. It's anecdotal, but I think mineral oil is fine most most applications, though I've also known some inorganic chemists that say it's not enough for what they're doing.$\endgroup$
– ZheJul 15 '17 at 13:08

$\begingroup$Could the first one be used as a trap, as one that is used before a vacuum pump?$\endgroup$
– Eashaan GodboleJul 15 '17 at 16:20

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$\begingroup$@EashaanGodbole That seems highly unlikely. First, there is no banana for scale, but that appears to be quite small, smaller than any trap I've seen. Second, a trap would have a collection vessel that was detachable, so that the trapped contents could be easily cleaned out. I suppose you could rig it to serve as a trap if you needed to, but I would be concerned about pulling vacuum on a piece that was not intended for that purpose.$\endgroup$
– ZheJul 15 '17 at 17:08